Spanish oil group Repsol YPF said on Friday it had made what could be its largest ever gas discovery off Venezuela, in an exploration partnership with Italy's Eni.

The site could contain around 1.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE), a Repsol spokesman said, adding that tests were continuing and that the figure was provisional.

The discovery was made in an offshore site in the Gulf of Venezuela called Cardon 4.

The spokesman confirmed a statement by Venezuela President Hugo Chavez to the Spanish newspaper El Pais during a visit to Madrid on Friday during which he met with Repsol chairman Antoni Brufau.

'At the rate at which we are making certified scientific discoveries, Venezuela's gas reserves will put us among the five world giants of gas,' Mr Chavez told the paper, according to its Internet site.

Repsol and Eni would have stakes of 32.5 per cent each in future production, while Venezuela's state-oil company would get 35 per cent, the spokesman said.